Monday, July 25, 2011

Vibes Furthur Friday

A heat wave hit Vibes Friday, and the temperatures went above 100 for a good part of the afternoon. Due to the heat we stayed in camp resting most of the day. I wanted to catch the Tedeschi Trucks Band, but it was too hot, and the set was being played on the radio, so we sat in camp and listened to them play. They were good, but I just wish he'd play an Allman Brothers song or two. I started heading down to the stage right when Levon Helm was scheduled to come on, and I only missed a few songs. Levon Helm was the Drummer for The Band, in case you didn't know. Levon's band was huge, with several singers and guitarists and a whole horn section. Shortly after I made my way to the front, Levon welcomed Joe Russo, Furthur's drummer, to the stage. He sat in on "Mississippi Queen" and several others before Levon called Bob Weir on stage. Bobby sang "Deep Ellum Blues", and then went into "Attics of My Life". For "Attics", Levon wasn't even on the stage, but it was the highlight of the show. The A Capella singing was incredible. The song right after "Mardi Gras Day" I don't know the name of, but the female singer sang it with such soul, and I can't wait to download the show to see what song it was. After a few more songs with Levon back on the drums, he introduced the band, which seemed more like a family than a band. His pregnant daughter was a vocalist, and the leader of the band was Larry Campbell, and Howard Johnson the jazz player was the saxophonist. The encore had the whole band back out, and had both Joe and Levon on the drums for "The Weight", which is arguably The Band's most popular song.
After what seemed like forever to wait, Furthur came on and opened with "Minglewood Blues". Then JK killed "Friend of the Devil" sounding incredibly like Jerry. They then played "Mama Tried", a Hank Williams song that DSO covered the night before. "Dire Wolf" was next, and jammed on this for a long time before playing "Sugaree", which had the whole crowd shakin'! Next was an impressive "Deal" followed by another cover DSO played the night before, Cash's "Big River". Hearing both country songs that DSO played the night before was really cool, and begs the question of if they maybe played them because DSO played them, since John used to be a part of their band. Either way it was cool. The last song of the set was a rarity, "Mason's Children". this was a song off Workingman's Dead that was rarely played.
The second set started off with a blast on "St. Stephen" and then into "The Eleven". Then they played a Furthur original, "Mountain Song", which is my second favorite original behind "Colors of the Rain". They did a great job with it, showing that they can still write fantastic songs after all these years. That was followed by another song DSO played, "I Know You Rider". "Golden Slumber" into "Carry that Weight" was one of the highlights of the night, with everyone harmonizing nicely. Then came "Let It Grow" which they played a few nights before at Jones Beach. Then came "Stella Blue" which again had JK channeling Jerry's spirit. The awesomeness continued on into "Sugar Magnolia", and I found a dance partner for this song who was really cute and really topless. The last song of the show was "Around and Around", continuing the trend of playing songs from the DSO set. The encore was an absolute tearjerker, "Ripple". Incredibly emotional way to end the set, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Highlights were Mamma, Sugar, slumber>weight, and ripple.
After the show I went and checked out Big Gigantic before I realized that they don't play their own music anymore, and just remix songs. Dom used to be incredible, and still is, but I want to hear his music, not other people's. So I went back to the camp and partied there for a while before heading to the silent disco with my friend Ryan. We danced there until the sun came up, and he went back, but I went down to the beach to make more friends. By the time I finally went back to the camp I had been skinny dipping in the ocean, walked a long ways down the beach, danced my ass off to a car alarm, and found lots of cool shells. When I finally stumbled back into camp I passed out instantly, and slept ALL day.

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